David Sirota fact-checked Hillary for her debate answers tonight, where she claimed to be a champion of fracking only as a “bridge” to renewable energy sources, away from coal. However, David Sirota found that when Hillary was Secretary of State, she and her State Department did in fact promote coal, in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, and in South Africa.
Afghanistan:
In a 2011 report about Afghanistan — introduced with a signed statement from Clinton — the State Department said that country’s “extractive industries may be the most promising long-term source of future Afghan revenue.” The report specifically touted, among other things, “coal resources.”
Pakistan:
... Clinton told Pakistani leaders that "many of your neighbors are producing coal ... it’s unfortunate, but it’s a fact that coal is going to remain a part of the energy load until we can transition to cleaner forms of energy.”
She then promoted the benefits of coal development.
“There is no doubt that energy is at the heart of many of the economic problems that Pakistan faces – the unreliability, the erratic cross-structure, the failure to capture the full load that is produced,” she said during a trip to Lahore. “So getting the resources to exploit your coal as opposed to being dependent upon imported energy is a choice for you to make, but it is certainly a choice that your neighbors have made. And that’s something that should attract foreign investment and should attract capital investment within your own country.”
South Africa:
In 2010, South Africa requested a World Bank loan for a huge coal-fired power plant. As part of that initiative, the country lobbied the Clinton-led State Department...
Clinton later told her aides that in her subsequent discussion with the minister, she learned “they intend to use variety of energy sources in the future but this project is essential to deliver electricity — which I think our experts agree is right.” Days later, the United States government — the bank’s largest shareholder — abstained from using its power to try to block the World Bank loan, and it was approved over the objections of environmental groups.
I’m glad he also mentioned her selling of fracking to the world, as I've diaried about before, and drew a distinction between himself and his carbon tax on the one hand, and Hillary and her fracking “bridge” to renewables on the other hand. But Bernie was even more right on these environmental questions than he knew.